Credit: The Associated Press

FILE - In this March 6, 2018, photo a home across the street from the Apple campus is advertised as sold in Sunnyvale, Calif. On Tuesday, April 24, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index for February is released. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices jumped in February as buyers compete fiercely over a dwindling number of properties for sale.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index released Tuesday jumped 6.3 percent in February from a year earlier, matching December's increase. That jump was the largest in nearly three years.

Steady job gains and rising numbers of millennials moving out on their own has intensified the competition for homes. February's price gain far outpaces average increases in wages or inflation.